It’s really not.

Because only on Pluto would anyone that’s an actual or potential luxury watch buyer mistake or substitute a $260 plastic Swatch for being the real thing.

Proof by deduction: After this release, find me a single fake/replica website selling one of these swatches as being the real thing.

The actual analogous situation here has been previously proposed but to rehash:

 

Is that the new Carrera?? Two wheels!! Wow, Porsche really fooled me with that one

 

Porsche owners must feel silly knowing the name is out there on a bicycle for a fraction of the cost.

 

@cvalue13 I'm not saying anyone will mistake one for the other. It's not trying to fool anybody either. Everyone knows its a Golf. It's just not right to put Porsche/Carrera logo as more dominant than the VW.

That's all my point.

And bike vs car isn't right comparison. That's an Omega sunglasses.

 

Oh my god people- these watches are toys!! Collect the whole set! Why are some people taking these so seriously.
Omega/Swatch came up with a fun concept and figured out how to execute it in an affordable way (still will be $3k to collect the whole set which is not “affordable” to all). Just enjoy the laugh, buy the fun colors and give them away as gifts, wear them for the summer months- who cares!! These are fun, relax and don’t kick a puppy on the way home.

 

I have found your continued comments very helpful in shaping my own thinking on this topic.

The VWG vehicles 'hit a nerve' personally as well. We bought our daughter a new '21 Tiguan Highline last year. My wife works at Ford, so we've been driving their vehicles for 2 decades. I test drove multiple vehicles with our daughter (Escape/Kuga, Bronco Sport, Rav4, CRV -- lastly a Tiguan). We didn't plan on getting a VW, but after driving it, my daughter and I were both thrilled with it and agreed it was much better than the rest.

The Tiguan is very slow (compared to my DD - which is a ridiculous 707hp supercharged gas-guzzler SUV), but I like her car so much that I started looking at other VWG offerings for my next vehicle. I did a lot of research to compare the various Tiguan, SQ5 and Macan offerings. In my case, I ended up putting a deposit down on a Macan GTS. I have become very familiar with similarities and differences between them.

However, I still think from the consumer perspective (ie: my daughter's case), comparisons are done across different company brands at similar price-points rather than within a companies brands across the range of price-points. For my daughter, we compared what the different company/brands offered and went with the best option from those. For myself, while I've compared across the VWG brands (as her car showed me how much I might like their 'style'), I've been cross-comparing similar vehicles from other makes.

 

that seems to be what the majority of civil disagreement around here hinges on: whether a person views a $260 pink, plastic, “MoonSwatch” as so categorically distinct as a product that it may as well be a bicycle or sunglasses

to my sensibilities, they’re as distinct a category as is my NEW321 and this

 

The power of the marketing team......
Slight thread drift but a company I worked with had some bespoke equipment made which was used in a unique and very prestigious way. It arrived unbranded but at short notice I managed to get some old transfers with the company logo / name etc to brand it on site. I had to put it at an angle but it looked ok.
A national TV company arrived later that day and the application would be seen across the nation...
Later a service engineer rang me........
TV cameras arrived.... I saw the branding was not the latest approved edition and was not on straight ..... but don’t worry I had time to remove it before they took the film so we won’t get in trouble .....:0(

 

But...but.... will Omega survive this?? (er, Swatch Group?) Think of the corporate overlords! How will they afford their yachts!

Oh the hugemanatee!!

 

Fair point. We could agree to differ.
Now let's talk about the elephant in the room. Will that MoonSwatch strap be the same quality as the $190 velcro strap that's on Omega's site?!
Jk

 

Yes, I meant Product Line as in Watches.

- Omega vs Swatch are different brands at very different tiers
- Speedmaster vs Seamaster vs MoonSwatch are different models
- Reduced vs Pro vs Uranus are different sub-models (to me)
- Quartz vs Mechanical are different technologies
- Steel vs Ceramic vs bio-blah-blah-bs are different materials

The same function (time & chronograph) comes from both a mechanical Omega Speedmaster Pro and this new quartz OmegaXswatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch. Differences in price are 'justified' entirely by difference in perceived 'prestige' and/or 'rarity'.

If you see a Swatch Quartz and Omega Mechanical as no more similar than lingerie and cheese... I strongly advise you stop buying the missus nice clothing at the local deli... and don't look for sandwich toppings at Victoria Secret

 

You said your anus….

Ok, 12 year old me has done my deed for the day (I did it again- poop joke!)

 

I think these are colorful and fun, and it causes me no angst to the 1861 I own. If they become readily available on line I will probably buy one, if for no other reason than to wear when my Speedy goes in for service.

Love em, hate em, or in between - we can all agree this has got people talking. The threads have been some of the most active I have seen since joining 4 years ago.

 

I get your point... and as an Omega certified watchmaker, I value your opinion.

For the world at large, when they go to the Omega website, it's the first thing prominently displayed:

When they click on the link to "Discover More", it proudly speaks of it being a partnership and all of the visual branding has the OMEGA symbol and logo first and most prominent. This visual branding is very intentional, so they clearly want people to make a strong connection with Omega and the iconic Moonwatch. People may only be able to buy them at a Swatch store (or online eventually), but no one will miss the strong Omega branding. To say it's 'not an Omega' seems like a technical 'distinction without a difference'.

 

In your view, is the fact that it's manufactured by Swatch simply a distinction and not a difference?

 

I don't follow...

Au contraire! There are many corporations with different brands representing various overlapping product offerings with distinct price/value points. All of the top tier auto-companies:
Toyota: Daihatsu/Toyota/Lexus
VWG: VW/Audi/Porsche/etc
and many others (all in the top 10 of global volume)...

They have different models within each Brand, and they have overlapping models across Brands that are carefully differentiated, and they have different trim levels within each model.

They are careful to set them apart by offering different styling/features/options, by selling at different 'dealers', with distinct badging and separate marketing campaigns.

It would be much more economical to simply offer 1 Brand with 1 model in each vehicle segment (less tooling, development & marketing cost), but they would definitely lose sales as they couldn't meet varying buyer expectations and price levels. Over the past century, there have been many consolidations where different brands were brought under the same corporate umbrella (Stellantis the most recent), and there have been divestitures (Ford selling Jaguar/Land Rover), and there have been brands discontinued (Mercury, Saturn, etc)

They could also try using a halo-effect from the 'luxury' offerings to boost sales in the 'basic' tiers, but they would risk undoing the hard work put into differentiating them in the first place.

Perhaps we differ in that you consider Swatch a comparable 'luxury' brand to Omega, and I do not. I see them as the same product, with distinctly different pricing levels.

Maybe you buy into @ConElPueblo 's argument that Omega and Swatch are different like lingerie and cheese. I tend to think they're more akin to the difference between lingerie and basic undies...

 

In my view, 'who' a product is from is discerned by the logo/markings more than the manufacturing location or retailer.

I buy Coca Cola and Pepsi at my local grocer or restaurant, I don't link them to the retailer or local sub-contracted bottling plant as much as the branding on the product itself.

Distinction: these watches may be put together at a 'Swatch' owned manufacturing center with 'Swatch' designed/built components, but the consumer doesn't see that and doesn't know or care about it.

No Difference: The consumer sees the bold Omega branding all over the product (very intentional).

 

I would agree with this if Swatch was simply the retailer in this scenario. So not a perfect comparison, but I understand how you are viewing it.

 

I have found the online commentary on this co-branding interesting. People discuss every bit of finite detail on each new Omega release with people often falling on various points of the "mehh, to it's okay, to love-it-gotta-have-it-NOW" scale. Comments are allowed, with debate and criticism accepted as relevant consumer perceptions.

Lot of commentary over the years about Rolex/Omega putting 'too much text' on dials... every available space on this dial was smattered with some branding -- who cares...

Commentary about dial layout, spacing and colour choices, yet for this -- the only allowable choice is which you prefer (two seems to be the minimum expectation... lol)

Often see discussions about the number of LE's and when will the proliferation of Speedy variants stop -- and for this, because it's not technically an 'Omega', and not a 'LE', it's all good!

I guess with this MoonSwatch, some of the anti-crowd have denounced Omega so critically and projected a crash in future value of watches in such a way that it's made any criticism of execution to be discounted out-of-hand.

 

I'd say the majority of the discussion has not been critique of design, it's critique of the brand itself for even associating with Swatch, (with others defending). That's got to be about 95% of the conversation right now.

Edit: commenting on OF commentary specifically